{"id":428229,"date":"2026-05-15T01:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/428229\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T01:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T01:35:09","slug":"leaky-home-verdict-auckland-qsm-holder-davinder-rahal-ordered-to-pay-couple-825k-over-deceptive-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/428229\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaky home verdict: Auckland QSM holder Davinder Rahal ordered to pay couple $825k over deceptive sale"},"content":{"rendered":"

But a just-released Court of Appeal decision found Rahal was liable to pay significant damages<\/a> under the Fair Trading Act to the couple for the losses they suffered after they were \u201clocked into ownership\u201d of a leaky property that was worth less than their mortgage and which they could not afford to repair. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr Bhargav and Ms Kharjuria were not able to sell to move to a leak-free home, were forced into a negative equity situation, living in sub-standard housing with their young family, and having to repair the property themselves,\u201d the decision says.<\/p>\n

\"DavinderDavinder Singh Rahal had argued that the house was sold by his company, which was now in liquidation, and that he should not be personally liable for damages after the deceptive sale. <\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s lawyer, Sarah Wroe, told the Herald the decision was significant in that it found Rahal could not hide behind the \u201ccorporate veil\u201d of his company, which was now in liquidation. <\/p>\n

The finding that Rahal was personally liable for the couple\u2019s loss<\/a> meant they could now pursue him directly for the damages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision shows the courts will enforce fair trading legislation to compensate buyers who are misled<\/a>,\u201d Wroe said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is bad news for vendors who hide defects, then try to hide behind their company to avoid liability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Smelt damp and mouldy\u2019<\/p>\n

Rahal and his wife were the sole directors and shareholders of First Trust Ltd (FTL), which bought the Goodwood Heights property in 2019. <\/p>\n

An earlier High Court judgment by Justice Anne Hinton<\/a> found Rahal was aware the property suffered from water damage when he bought it, and that he authorised cosmetic repairs to conceal the defects before selling it to Ameet Bhargav and his wife Renu Khajuria in March 2020 without disclosing the weather-tightness problems. <\/p>\n

Rahal accepted that parts of the property \u201csmelt damp and mouldy\u201d<\/a> when he viewed it, but said he thought this was what made it a \u201cdo up\u201d.<\/p>\n

He denied being told by the selling agent that it was a leaky home and said he would never have bought it if he knew it leaked.<\/p>\n

Justice Hinton disagreed, ruling that Rahal had authorised \u201ccover-up works\u201d<\/a> and that his failure to disclose that information \u201cconstituted misleading and deceptive conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

The couple launched legal action in 2021. FTL and Rahal were found jointly liable and ordered to pay total damages of $900,000.<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s Court of Appeal hearing, Rahal\u2019s lawyer, Andrew Grant, described his client as a \u201cvery old, sick man\u201d. <\/p>\n

While Rahal was the director of the vendor company, he \u201cpersonally did not have sufficient involvement\u201d in the sale process to \u201cpierce the corporate veil and sheet home liability to him\u201d.<\/p>\n

Grant told the court that real estate agent Gary Bal had handled the sale and had since entered into a settlement with the couple. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe couple paid $665,000 for this home in Goodwood Heights, Manukau, in March 2020. It turned out to be infested with rot. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

Rahal\u2019s business partner, Ranjay Sikka, had acted as an agent of FTL and overseen the renovation, Grant said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a case in which Mr Rahal was solely driving activities of this company.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Wroe argued Rahal was the \u201cpuppet master\u201d and should be held liable for his actions. <\/p>\n

While there were two FTL directors, \u201cfor all intents and purposes, it was a one-man band\u201d. <\/p>\n

Wroe said Justice Hinton found Rahal to be an unreliable witness who gave \u201cimplausible\u201d evidence by claiming he did not know the property leaked. <\/p>\n

The trial heard evidence that Rahal was shown \u201cvisible\u201d water damage when he viewed the property, but told an agent \u201cit would not be a problem\u201d because he would fix it as he\u2019d done with other investment homes.<\/p>\n

\"DavinderDavinder Rahal was found to have knowingly sold a leaky home to a young couple in Goodwood Heights, Manukau, in March 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was well aware of the entirely false condition of the property as it was being presented to the purchasers,\u201d Wroe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a case of deliberate deception of a young couple buying their first home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning that their home leaked had been a huge blow for the couple, who were forced to live in a damp, mouldy property with a young baby. <\/p>\n

They had taken on a 30-year $600,000 mortgage for a home that was worth only $480,000 and were in no position to buy back into the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were immediately locked into a negative equity situation,\u201d Wroe said. \u201cThe plaintiffs would not have bought had they known the truth. They would have walked away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an exceptional case. We haven\u2019t been able to find a similar level of deception and the quite tragic outcome for this young couple and their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal decision found there was \u201cmore than enough evidence\u201d to show Rahal was sufficiently involved in the misleading and deceptive conduct to warrant personal liability. <\/p>\n

\u201cMr Bhargav and Ms Khajuria were effectively locked into retaining the leaky property, living in it, enduring the physical and mental health consequences of doing so with their family, and repairing the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their plans, hard work and savings were \u201ccompletely derailed\u201d by the deliberately misleading and deceptive conduct of Rahal and his company.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, Mr Rahal is liable for the costs of remediation and consequential losses.\u201d <\/p>\n

The court awarded the couple $688,868.40 for breach of the Fair Trading Act and $103,107 for consequential losses. <\/p>\n

However, on appeal, an earlier award of $80,000 for general damages was substituted with an order for $35,000. <\/p>\n

Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald, with more than 20 years\u2019 experience in the industry.<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But a just-released Court of Appeal decision found Rahal was liable to pay significant damages under the Fair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[219498,219496,74,51,1558,138,5098,8414,1349,22427,219494,200757,147982,12515,42123,1345,10053,296,6853,11556,26019,111,139,69,19719,1523,2744,219493,69656,219495,219497,1133,2552,219499,61,21146,4741],"class_list":["post-428229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-219498","tag-825k","tag-after","tag-auckland","tag-been","tag-business","tag-buying","tag-couple","tag-court","tag-damages","tag-davinder","tag-deceptive","tag-duped","tag-highprofile","tag-holder","tag-home","tag-house","tag-into","tag-leaky","tag-losing","tag-medal","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ordered","tag-over","tag-pay","tag-qsm","tag-queens","tag-rahal","tag-rotinfested","tag-sale","tag-service","tag-skirmish","tag-to","tag-verdict","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}